STRAWBERRY 



STRAWBERRY 



1735 



they should be avoided. Pots are sometimes plunged 

 under the new runners in June and July, and they be- 

 come filled with roots by August or September. These 

 pot-grown plants are excellent for fall setting in the 

 home garden, but they are seldom employed in exten- 

 sive commercial practice. Fig. 2416. 



In Florida, according to Rolfs, beds need to be reset 

 annually, in September or October; plants set at this 



2414. Strawberry plant ready for setting. 



time produce a good crop in the following February, 

 March and April. The plants may be produced at 

 home, or they may be secured from the North. Excel- 

 lent plants for Florida conditions are procured from 

 North Carolina. 



For the very finest berries, each plant is allowed a 

 space or hill by itself, and cultivation is given both 

 ways. For general commercial results, however, plants 

 are generally set in narrow rows. The old method was 

 to plant in rows 3-3% feet apart and the plants from 

 12-15 inches apart in rows, keeping off the runners un- 

 til late in July and then allowing the runners to grow 

 and root at will, making a matted row. In this system 

 some plants are almost on top of others, the roots 

 barely in the ground, and they suffer in a season of 

 drought. The rows are so wide that to pick fruit in the 

 center it is almost necessary to crush fruits on the out- 

 side of the row. This system gives few large first-class 

 fruits, and is now passing away. The up-to-date grower 

 starts with the assumption that the largest and highest 

 colored fruits are found on plants along the outside of 

 the rows, and therefore he plans to have as many out- 

 side rows as possible. This he accomplishes by having 

 his rows closer together and much narrower. The rows 

 are made from 30-36 inches apart and the plants from 

 18-24 or even 30 inches apart in the rows, much depend- 

 ing on the prolificacy of the variety as a plant-maker. 

 If the plants used for a new bed are strong and start 

 into growth vigorously, the first runners are used, as it 

 has been found that under most conditions the plants 

 about twelve months old yield the greatest number of 

 fine fruits. These first runners are usually "bedded in," 

 i. e., planted by hand, training them along the wide way 

 of the rows, using from four to eight of the first run- 

 ners and cutting off those growing later. This method 

 of planting allows cultivation both ways until the run- 

 ners start, retaining moisture and saving labor in hoe- 

 ing. This system is shown, in a full-bearing bed, in 

 Fig. 1486, Vol. III. 



Strawberries are usually mulched in the fall in order to 

 protect them in the winter and early spring and to pre- 

 vent the soil from heaving. In some cases the mulch is 

 allowed to remain on the plants rather late in the spring, 



in order to retard the season of bloom. Sometimes 

 the crop may be retarded a week or ten days by this 

 means, and cases are reported in which it has been de- 

 layed with commercial results somewhat longer than 

 this. The mulch is usually more necessary in regions of 

 light and precarious snowfall than in those in which the 

 snow blanket is deep and lies all winter. In regions of 

 deep and continuous snowfall, a heavy mulch is likely 

 to prove injurious. Experience has shown that the best 

 mulch is usually some strawy material. Along the sea- 

 coast, salt hay from the tide marshes is much used. In 

 interior places clean straw, in which there is no grain 

 to sprout and to make weeds, is very largely employed. 

 Fig. 2417. In the South, pine needles are used. Some- 

 times loose strawy manure is used, and the mulch adds 

 fertilizer to the soil as well as affords protection. Under 

 ordinary conditions the mulch is three or four inches 

 deep over the plants after it is fairly well packed down. 

 It is not always possible, however, to mulch as heavily 

 as this, since the material is likely to be expensive when 

 one has a large area. The mulch is usually applied late 

 in the fall after the ground has frozen, and if the 

 material is abundant both the plants and the interven- 

 ing spaces are covered. In the spring the mulch is 

 raked from the plants as soon as they begin to start. 

 Some persons allow it to lie between the rows as a 

 cover to retain moisture and to keep the berries clean. 

 The most expert growers, however, prefer to take the 

 mulch from the field and to till the plantation once or 

 twice before the plants are in bloom. The material is 

 sometimes returned and spread on the loose soil be- 

 tween the rows. In the northern prairie states, heavy 

 mulching is essential. Professor S. B. Green advises 

 for western Minnesota and Dakota a covering of at 

 least six inches of straw. This mulch is easily pro- 

 vided, since straw is so abundant in that country that 

 it is often burned as the readiest means of getting 

 rid of it. When not mulched in that region, the 

 plants are likely to be killed outright or to start with 

 a very weak growth. 



Strawberry flowers may be either perfect or imperfect, 

 and the nature of the flower is characteristic of the va- 

 riety. In some kinds, the flower is perfect or hermaphro- 

 dite (having both stamens and pistils) and is conse- 

 quently self-fertile. In others it is pistillate, producing 

 no pollen, and requiring a pollen-bearing variety to pol- 



2415. Old Strawberry plant, usually not desirable 



for setting;. 



linate it. Fig. 2418. There are no varieties bearing only 

 staminate or sterile flowers. The perfect-flowered varie- 

 ties differ greatly in the amount of pollen they produce. 

 Some, as the Crescent and Glen Mary, bear so few sta- 



